Porsche 918 Spyder Hybrid: It crushes (eardrums)

Porsche is dead serious about its 918 Spyder Hybrid supercar, going so far as to bring in potential clients for a look-see at a special viewing in the Monterey Jet Center, as bucks-up car lovers gather for the Monterey classic weekend. The press briefing on Thursday night revealed little that was not previously reported when the car debuted at the Geneva auto show in March. The car is destined for production — no date and price established. The car will be a successor to the Carrera GT supercar and, as Porsche design chief Michael Mauer said, the car will fully embody “the performance and design future of Porsche.” The carbon composite body — with styling derived from the current ALMS RS Spyder — is largely established and, with the notable exception of the video rear outside “mirrors” with forward-looking lenses (to video record your moments of road-conquering glory) the car is pretty much as it will look on the showroom. That includes the 22-inch 295/30 Pirelli rear tires. Yowza.

And it will be an uncommonly adept and versatile hybrid. With a 3.4-liter V8 mounted amidships — an engine derived from the Audi RS6 — and two 100 hp electric motors, one in the rear transaxle and another fitted to the front axle, the Spyder Hybrid (712 hp combined) can operate in two or four-wheel drive mode; E-power mode (fully electric, with the capacity for plug-in charging); range extended mode (with the V8 charging the 8 kWh, 400 Volt battery and they alone driving the electric motors); and full power (V8 and electric power working to maximize traction and acceleration as demanded), and virtually any combination therein. With that extra grip and instantaneously modulated traction from the electric motors and lateral torque-vectoring AWD, the Spyder Hybrid should hit 60 mph from a dead stop in 3.2 seconds, says Porsche, and nick the Nurburgring in under 7 minutes, 30 seconds — quicker than the Carrera GT.

Porsche also expects the car to get 78 miles per gallon according to the European test cycle. Got that? 712 hp, 78 mpg. Take that, Prius.

A quick flip through the reporters notebook:

Currently there are three cooling circuits aboard, with one circuit shared by the cabin HVAC and the battery climate system. As always in battery-intensive cars, cold weather is not so much an issue — it takes minimal power to keep the batteries warm enough to operate — but hot, Phoenix-like weather is a major obstacle. Speaking of thermal management: No company has ever put an oven-hot V8 is such close proximity to high-tech batteries. Look for Porsche test engineers to be sweating it out in Death Valley for the next 18 months.

Mauer and company are confident they can get the grapefruit-sized side pipes past regulators, and this will be important. Another challenge in this car is packaging all the heavy and important stuff amidships, near the polar center of mass, to augment handling. But between the V8 engine, the power electronics, the batteries, and associated plumbing, it’s very crowded under the engine hatch. The straight pipes, with catalytic converters built right into the exhaust manifold, save a lot space and also keep the bottom of the car flat for better aero management.

On the steering wheel, in addition to the four-mode hybrid switch, there’s a little red button for 7 seconds of electric overboost, which I called — and the German engineers agreed — the sehr schnell button.

And lastly, the sound, the crazy, delirious, soul-rattling sound of the thing. At a super-secret location in the Carmel Highlands, with a handful of press invited, Porsche took the 918 out for a little jog, where we heard this thing bark. The V8 in question is a highly stressed (9,200 rpm redline) flat-crank, naturally aspirated 3.4-liter motor that produces a monstrous 500 hp — that’s 147 hp per liter, for those scoring at home. If that number holds up it would give the Porsche Spyder Hybrid’s motor the highest specific output of any naturally aspirated production engine, topping the Ferrari 458 Italia (127 hp/liter).

And for all its tomorrow-tech, for all its lithium and carbon and silicon, the most charming feature of the 918 Spyder Hybrid is the Gabriel’s horn exhaust note, a ferocious and blabby cannonade exactly like a Nascar stock car.

Comments (5 of 5)

being pedantic -- 127hp per litre for the ferrari is not the highest power output for a production engine...

my 5 year old kawasaki 1200 produces 165hp at the rear wheel -- newer machines are routinely getting 180 hp - and this is rear wheel

best

10:08 am August 15, 2010

Billium wrote :

@ buntyp

The point that he is making is for a car that is popular with the moron "greens" Porsche is building a supercar that has amazing HP and speed while having much better mpg than a family car like the Prius. I'm not sure what you would spend on a decent vacation in the Caribbean but I have a feeling the price on the new Porsche is going to be more like 100 trips!

10:04 am August 15, 2010

Anonymous wrote :

Wow, I want to vacation with you! The Spyder is likely to cost over 500,000.00 The area of comparison is that the Prius is a hybrid.

6:40 pm August 14, 2010

buntyp wrote :

I don't understand the phrase "Take that Prius". What could possibly be the areas of comparison.

One thing is for sure, a 2 Prius car family, when they see the price of 'This Porsche', they''ll simply say, there goes about our 2 cars & about 3 decent Caribbean Vacations.

In future when giving a run-down on some 6 figure car, try not to make comparisons with a family car.